Dear TItus

Barnabas Piper, the son of the great John Piper, a pastor's kid and a pastor himself, wrote a piece about five roles people often expect pastors to fill that God didn't actually call them to be. So these are the wrong answers to what are pastors supposed to be doing? So it's not up there. I'll just say it. Here they are.

1. CEO and business maven, business expert 2. Financial expert and planner 3. Marriage and family therapist 4. Sociologist 5.

Political pundits and spokesmen now, it could be that a certain pastor does have experience or education in one or more of these areas. It might also be the case that depending on the passage to be exposited, he'll dabble in some of those topics. Over time, he becomes a dilettante at worst. At best, he might be like a contestant at Jeopardy.

But to get to the core of a pastor's identity, we've got to open the Bible. Okay, that's too general to be helpful. I propose we go to the New Testament. Getting warmer. We still need to narrow our choices down further.

One suggestion from Dan Peters, one of my mentors, was to read through Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus and jot down what I observed to be all the biblical requirements of the pastor. I did skim scan read through the three letters many times, especially to prepare for ordination earlier this year. But studying these epistles is good for all of us, really. That way we can measure whether your expectations of me are healthy or not. Also, we'll literally be on the same page when it comes to my job description.

Today we're starting a series on Apostle Paul's letter to Titus. Per usual with the first sermon, I'll give a lot of background and introductory material. So bear with me here. When a pastor or preacher says bear with me here, that usually means there's a lot of technical information coming. So bear with me here.

As I talk, it helps to keep in mind three basic adjectives to describe the short epistle.

First, the letter to Titus is one of Paul's heart to heart letters. You could say individual letters, but I'm going to call it heart to heart and you'll see why.

Secondly, this is a pastoral letter to Titus. And thirdly, this is an authentic letter of Paul. FYI, the same three adjectives can be applied to first and second Timothy as well. First of all, Titus is among the four heart to heart letters.

If you turn to the table of contents in your New Testament or in the Bible, you'll find a list of Paul's Letters beginning with Romans. Now, I'm of the opinion that the last one on the list is Philemon. There is a long standing tradition that Paul also wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, but the question of his authorship has not been settled today. There's no need to split a church over this matter. I for one am pocketing this question for when I get to heaven.

It's better to focus on the 13 letters before Hebrews, each beginning with Paul's name at the top of the page.

These 13 letters are not arranged in chronological order, but according to audience. Here's what I mean. We have first a bunch of letters to churches and secondly a few letters to individuals. So if you look at the first nine, you'll notice they all end with S. We have groups of Christians.

There are letters to churches at different places in the Roman Empire, whether they're Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, on and on. In addition, they're arranged in order of length from the largest to the smallest. So that's nine out of 13 letters. As for the remaining four, they weren't addressed to groups but to individuals. Timothy, Titus and Philemon.

These are also arranged in order of length from the largest to smallest. So that adds up to the 13 letters of Paul.

This two part arrangement in your Bible is helpful, but there's also a three part chronological arrangement of Paul's letters.

You can divide and label them into three categories. Missionary Epistles, prison Epistles and Pastoral Epistles. Missionary epistles, as its name suggests, are those written during Paul's three missionary journeys. I think Galatians was written just after the first journey and then during the second journey. Paul wrote first and second Thessalonians while he was at Corinth.

Speaking of Corinth, during his third journey, Paul also wrote to that city twice, first and second Corinthians, and then from that city wrote Romans, hoping to get to Rome soon.

As we learn from Acts, Paul's journey to Rome was quite a memorable one. He met mob violence at the Jerusalem Temple, imprisonment in Caesarea, Maritima, shipwreck in Malta. It's a wonder he made it to Rome in one piece, but make it as he did, safe and sound there. Luke reports in Acts 28 that the apostle was permitted to dwell by himself two whole years in his own rented house with the soldier who guarded him. He was allowed to preach the Gospel and receive those who visited him.

He also found time to write some churches to Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. He wrote Philemon a Prominent leader of the Colossians. Paul wrote him after Onesimus, his runaway slave, visited him and was converted under his ministry. So those are the prison epistles. So if you're keeping count, we're up to 10.

Six missionary letters and four prison letters. 10 out of 13. The remaining three are the pastoral letters. Two were written to Timothy and one to Titus. These are his last letters and last words, so clergymen like myself better listen up.

As for you, see for yourselves whether I'm fulfilling my duty as a shepherd of this flock. Besides that, you'll find doctrines and principles of great value for all who want to live for Christ.

Now, these pastoral letters are valuable only because they're authentic, meaning apostolic from Paul and ultimately from God. This is an assumption that's been held for centuries and nearly two millenniums. But in the 19th century, liberal scholars began hypothesizing that Paul the Apostle didn't write these letters to Timothy and Titus. They argue this even though Paul's name is right there at the heading of each letter. Chapter one, verse one of each letter.

They propose that the author is not Paul, but a later follower of Paul. They say the writers a generation or two removed from the apostle, and he's reflecting the perspective of someone in the second century, not the first.

Now, in my favorite go to Commentary of the Whole Bible, the Bible Knowledge Commentary A Duane Litvin helpfully summarizes this attack on the authenticity of the pastoral epistles.

The attack is four pronged. Let me see if I got this here.

Historical, stylistic, ecclesiastical and theological. First, concerning history. Careful readers of the letters to Timothy and Titus will note how some details do not align with the details of Acts. Because of this apparent conflict, liberals will see, will say, see someone much later edited or wrote these epistles with fictional references pretending to be an apostle. But this is a classic square peg in a round hole problem.

There's much more plausible solution. The pastoral letters were written after Acts.

Recall that Luke does not end Acts with the report of Paul's execution. If Paul was executed during house arrest, surely Luke would have said so. It's likely that Paul was cleared of his charges and was free to go. And then, between his release in 62 AD and his second imprisonment and martyrdom in 67 AD the apostle traveled to various places while he was here and there. He left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete.

My guess is that he even attempted a voyage to Spain as he had planned for a while. But eventually his enemies overtook and recaptured him and had him tried and executed.

So that explains the historical differences between the pastoral letters and Acts. What about the stylistic differences in a minute between Paul's pastoral letters and his earlier ones? What about some of the unusual vocabulary that they say are in the these three letters? What do we make of the words considered rare among his writings, statistically speaking? To begin, statistical analyses of this sort can be tricky.

We don't have that much data here.

So Paul's letter together, all together add up to a little over 30,000 words. To give perspective, that's 13 epistles amounting to 5% of Leo Tolstoy's 1 work, War and Peace, which is nearly 600,000 words. To put it another way, 30,000 words add up to about eight typical sermons from me and about five typical sermons of Todd Beale. Not much, right? That's not nearly enough to assess the entire corpus of one's vocabulary.

I hung out with Todd Bu he has a great range of vocabulary, right? But say you still want to argue that stylistically these words to pastors are different than Paul's other words, so they must be forged or something like that. Now, you might check out the experiment of one named W.P. workman.

He decided to compare writings of Paul's epistles with Shakespeare's works. He took a volume of various plays by this guy named Irving and collected the following data concerning unique words. Some, like Julius Caesar, that play had very unique words per page, less than four per page. But others, like Hamlet, had over 10 per page, hundreds of them total in that play. So Workman's question is this.

Do we dispute the Shakespearean authorship of Hamlet because there are so many unique words in this play?

No, that's pretty much proportional to the differences between the so called undisputed works of Paul on one hand and those quote unquote disputed pastorals on the other. All this to say stylistic differences between works to the not amount to uncommon authorship early there are ecclesiastical arguments leveled against the pastorals. The liberals claim that the congregational structure and order described here cannot possibly originate from the first century. The real apostle Paul, they say, had little to no interest in church polity. Instead, this must be some second century writer who hijacked Paul's name to propagate his own ideas.

The problem with this argument is that they're reading into the text or misreading the text. There's no need to think, for example, Paul's trying to set up bishops over elders. He's not pushing for a hierarchical structure of regional episcopacy over the local presbytery. The apostle's been consistent in using bishop, which is overseer, shepherd and elder interchangeably, you see that in Acts 20. So also consistent in the early church has been the concern for widows.

There's no need to think that the list in first Timothy is the same as what became formalized in the second century.

Finally, some claim that the theological doctrinal concerns of the pastors reflect second century problems different from what Paul faced. Take for example Gnosticism, explicitly refuted in 1 Timothy 6. 20. Gnosticism is a belief that esoteric secret knowledge is the way to be saved from the material world of evil. One can easily argue that this teaching existed prior in a seminal prototype form in the first century.

Evidently some form of early Gnostic religion was already creeping into churches, such as the church at Colossae.

Time was required for its development, like a plane speeding on a Runway before takeoff. So it must have existed in some form in 1st century. As for the other theological contents of the pastorals, again, there's no need to question the authorship of Paul. One understands that writing to pastors, the apostles more prone to reinforce what they already know than rather than introduce new concepts. And while not all of Paul's doctrines are repeated to Timothy and Titus, some key ones do resurface.

For example, the doctrine of grace apart from works so vital to Paul in Romans4. Six is found in Titus3. 5. The blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works sure sounds like not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Or compare Romans 3:24 to Titus 3.

7. Justified freely by his grace to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. To having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Told you to bear with me, so you bore with me. Thank you. So I hope that gives you enough arsenal in defense against those who reject Paul's authorship of Titus in first and second Timothy may not seem very relevant now, but once you get into talks about, you know, first Timothy 2, I don't know. People may start to say, I don't know if Paul wrote that letter right? So it's good to defend those who naysayers who say first and second Timothy and Titus are not written by Paul.

So we have this defense and now we can finally get to it. We can get to the letter itself. So we start with this one long sentence that stretches across first four verses. Let's read Titus 1:1:4.

Paul a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested his word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior to Titus, a true son in our common faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Try to listen to sermons by well known preachers to get fed and get excited to preach my own sermons to my delight. Alistair Beg more than a decade ago preached through Titus. I know that many of us are fans of Alistair Beck, so you can look this up. He called his introductory sermons on these four verses Truths or Truth Tightly Packed.

Truth Tightly Packed. Think it's an apt title. Got a lot going on here in what's just supposed to be a heading, so we will unpack it. Unless we get bogged down on the details of the passage or skim over it mindlessly. Begg suggests focusing on 4P words.

So this is his point. Paul's position, purpose, preaching and partner. I'm going to do something similar with PR words for each verse here.

But first, here's the overarching question this passage answers. How should Paul's ministry back then translate into pastoral ministry today? Okay, so he sort of teases us with big themes at the very beginning of the letter. So right from the top, right from the get go, Apostle Paul wants me to major on these four majors. Promotion of faith established and growing.

That's verse one, Promises of God concerning life everlasting. Verse two, Preaching as means of revealing. Verse three, Preparation for ministry ongoing. Verse four, first major promotion of faith established and growing again. Verse one.

Paul a bond, servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness. If this introduction sounds a bit too proper among friends, keep in mind that this isn't a mere this isn't merely a private correspondence only meant for Titus. It was eventually read at the public assembly, heard by all the congregants. You'll see the final word of the letter is Grace be with you all, plural. Amen.

And what Paul wants these believers at Crete to know and Titus to be reminded is this Paul's first of all God's bondservant. He owns no rights of his own. He belongs to his Master. He's obligated to the Lord before he serves others. But keep in mind, while all Saints are generally God's servants.

Not all saints are God's apostles. All Christians are sent according to the Great Commission or discipleship. But not all Christians are sent with the sign and seal of apostleship.

What is this office of the apostle? An apostle is a gift to the early church. Apostles are foundational to the Church. Like Jesus, the cornerstone of the Church, they were here on earth for a limited time at the initial setup stage of a new era.

You might compare the foundational apostles of the Church to the founding fathers of our nation. We don't walk around D.C. expecting to run into George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams or James Madison. But their life and work still impact us as Americans. That's similar to the role of the apostles. We rely on their eyewitness accounts of Jesus, just such as the Gospel of Matthew.

We obey their authoritative teachings, such as Peter's letters. Paul as well, obviously in particular was the apostle to the Gentiles. That's non Jews sent out to preach the gospel among the nations.

Moving on to the second half of verse one, Paul's first goal was the promotion of faith. Now it might surprise you that while speaking of his apostolic mission, he'd mentioned God's elect.

Why bring up this complex idea of election and predestination? Don't we want to avoid arguments and theological disputes now? Read the Bible long enough and you'll find that the promotion of faith and God's election of those of faith are two ideas in agreement in accordance. Harmony, Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are frequently found together in the Scriptures.

There's no need to drive a wedge between the two. An excellent short book on this topic is Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. packer. Encourage you to read that. In it, Packer cites Charles Spurgeon.

Spurgeon was asked once to recognize reconcile these two truths of God's absolute rule and earthly duties, divine sovereignty and human responsibility. How do we reconcile these things? They seem to be contradictory. They seem to be at odds with each other. I wouldn't try, spurgeon replied.

I never reconcile friends.

That's what we need to keep in mind. And as close friends, standing side by side, the complementary doctrines of distinction, divine sovereignty and human responsibility encourage Paul to continue in his ministry and to finish his ministry. Truths about man's effort and God's election are like Aaron and Hur flanking Moses holding up his hands. That's consistent with the ministry of our Lord Jesus, the same Savior who commanded, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest was confident in this truth. All that the Father gives me will come to me.

Here's another example. Later, in Acts 13, during his first missionary journey at Pisidian Antioch, Paul had haters among his fellow Jews. But he and Barnabas were not deterred. On the contrary, they grew bold. They turned to the Gentiles, and many of them believed that was the Paul's comfort, the Barnabas comfort, and our comfort.

Here's Luke's summary in Acts 13:48. Now, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

When we go out to evangelize, we don't have to force anyone to believe. God will use our preaching, and we'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute. God will use our sending our message to do great things. He will save those he determined to save through faithful evangelism. Despite rejection, God accomplishes his purpose to redeem his elect.

True. But if you're still not convinced that election motivates faithfulness in ministry, take it from Paul himself, on the verge of martyrdom in second Timothy 2:10 I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation of which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Paul's inner resolve here, here on earth is energized by like a power line that extends into heaven up there. God works at the higher levels of sovereignty and election that way. That's way above our pay grade, by the way, and even Paul's, as wise as he is. Our job is the promotion of faith, established and growing.

And while promoting faith, we promote truth as well.

We learned this from Paul, who speaks the truth in Christ the Apostles, a teacher of Gentiles and faith and truth, as it says in First Timothy 2. 7. Like him, we're urging folks to believe, and we're spreading knowledge like strong perfumes. 2nd Corinthians 2:14. Through us, God diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.

And this truth acknowledged by believers, of course, with godliness. You see, truth is not morally neutral. Someone chosen by God not only believes God and knows God, he or she becomes like God. That's godliness. Very simply, we're becoming more and more like God.

We'll obviously unpack this more. But just to say close up this point, a faith that's genuine has a domino effect. It starts a chain reaction. Think of the 1 in second Peter 1:5 to 7 as faith, truth and godliness are linked together.

Paul As a servant of God and apostle of Christ cannot help but promote all three of these things. Faith, truth, godliness.

And then going on to verse two, Paul has his sights on the promises of God concerning life everlasting. The second major here, while the apostle is busy promoting faith, he does so with expectation in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. In other words, he keeps his focus on the future.

Typically, when we speak of hope, we're thinking of something like wishful thinking or prayer for the best man. I hope the Washington Commanders beat the Dallas Cowboys today. I really hope that maybe you hope for steady high returns from your stock portfolio. All of us parents here hope our kids grow up to live happy and fulfilling lives. As Christians, we want them to to be saved.

We have all this hope, right? But the hope of eternal life is of a different variety. This hope in the Gospels grounded in absolute certainty. Elsewhere, Peter speaks about living hope for born again Christians. Gospel hope is as sure as Jesus rose from the dead.

Is a hope based on past history, a hope fulfilled in the future, a hope that's already ours in the present.

Paul would agree with Peter. Gospel hope is true at all times, for all times. Since God himself promised eternal life before time began, he cannot lie. It's impossible for him to lie. He's not man that he should lie.

He's the Father of lights in whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

And he's resolved to show his mercy to his children. The Lord is not the one to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. He's not one to serve up old stale compassions. His mercies are new every day, every morning. As we sang earlier, our hope is in God who makes promises and keeps them.

Our hope is in him who has determined and will not change his mind.

In knowing all this. Being an apostle, a pastor, a missionary or an evangelist, just being a faithful witness of the Gospel, fulfilling the Great Commission is really an easy job, right? When it comes to the gospel, you might say the product sells itself. Your testimony is your testimonial. Believe in the word of God and share through the word of mouth.

Speak the truth concerning God. Who does not lie mimic Paul's conviction. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, but it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

The Apostle Paul and other apostles could not help but spread the good news of Jesus. And God did not keep the mystery of the Gospel a secret. As we see in verse 3, he chose preaching as means of revealing. Paul states the Lord has in due time manifested his word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior. Paul's job was to proclaim Christ.

He didn't choose this road for a career path. After stopping at a display table at, like, a job fair or something, no recruiter visited him at school and got him to sign on the dotted line. Paul is called by Jesus Christ himself to be an apostle separated to the Gospel of God through the will of God. The Father revealed his Son in Paul that he might preach him among the Gentiles. That's why he says, woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel somewhere else.

Dangers, persecutions, imprisonment, none of these things move me, he says, nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the Gospel of grace of God.

But as much as he wants to, Paul couldn't do this forever.

His time on earth would end. He had one narrow escape after another. But his enemies were relentless. The apostle knew this and had trained up men to carry on the work. That's what we see in verse 4.

We should be majoring in preparation for ministry ongoing.

I was thinking. I mean, we're getting close to the end of the year, so I was thinking about one big lesson I think I had from 2025 already. And it's that discipleship is what keeps us afloat, continues our operation, turns the gears of our church. That means just as Paul had his Timothy and Titus, we need to be preparing one or two men or women to continue our work. And this isn't just an imperative for those climbing up in years or for those in official titles and positions.

As every one of us make disciples, we also establish heirs of our ministries.

That's why Paul wrote the pastoral letters. He'll say in his final letter to Timothy, the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Second Timothy two. Two, right. He'll say to Titus in 1:5.

We'll look at this next week, set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every church, every city, as I commanded you. But first he addresses him in the first part of verse four to Titus, a true son in our common faith.

Who is this Titus Guy? We know very little about him and his background. There's no mention of Titus anywhere in Acts, but he must have been an early convert in Paul's ministry. The earliest mention of him chronologically speaking, would be Galatians 2. I think the visit to Jerusalem recounted there corresponds to the famine Visit of Acts 11:27 30.

Titus was at that private meeting as Paul presented his ministry to James, Peter and John there. It turns out that just as Timothy was useful to Paul's work as circumcised, Titus was useful as uncircumcised. What I mean is that Titus, a Greek, was the fruit of Paul's Gentile focused ministry.

He was welcomed as a brother in Christ, just as he is among Jewish Christians. He was a living symbol for the unity in the Gospel. That's why, remarkably, the apostle could address Titus as a true son in the common faith, just as he does with Timothy.

Of course, Titus did more than just stand there as an object lesson. Paul trusts him. He sends him to handle a messy situation in Corinth. We see his name throughout second Corinthians. He's a mediator, a go between the apostle and the church.

If I were to summarize his ministry to Corinth right, I use three words, three C words. Correction, consolation and collection. That means one. Titus saw the Corinthians react obediently to Paul's rebuke. Correction 2.

He was comforted and became a comfort to Paul. Consolation 3. And he facilitated a relief fund for believers in Jerusalem collection. So no doubt, Titus was a gifted man. He gets things done right, someone Paul trains in preparation for ministry ongoing.

But the apostle and the pastor will be the first to tell you that they could do nothing apart from God.

Even the customary greeting of Titus 1:4 reveals their need for him. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. They would say, hello, hi, what's up? Without much thought. But there's great significance in this unique apostolic reading from Paul.

Paul, it seems, Christianized a common greeting of his day concerning grace and peace. Commentator Ben Witherington says, quote, the standard greeting was chirone, which just happens to be from the same root as the word charis, which we translate as green grace. The standard Jewish greeting was, of course, shalom or peace. Paul combines the two standard greetings in order to properly greet both Gentiles and Jews in his audience. End quote.

But you see, there's also a third term in his address to Titus and Timothy, Mercy. The only other place with all three in the salutation is 2nd John 1:3. That makes Paul's greeting, the pastorals, even more special.

By the way, to be quick while grace is getting what you don't deserve, the gift of God. Mercy Is not getting what we do deserve the wrath of God?

I don't need to spend too much time on this. Except to say that in the Gospel we find grace, mercy and peace. As Paul wrote in an earlier epistle. We were dead in sins and trespasses. We missed the mark.

We crossed the line. We broke the law. We were lustful in our flesh. In sexual immorality. In our punishment.

I'm sorry. In our covetousness that deserves punishment by nature. We're children of wrath deserving of eternal punishment. Our carnal mind is enmity with God against God, not subject to his will. Nor can it be.

But even if our evil is great, God is rich in mercy. Great is his love toward us. He sent Christ Jesus, God and man in one person, two natures. The Word of God became flesh. Son of God and Son of Man.

A helpless child, he grew up and lived a perfect life. Then Jesus gave up that perfect life to suffer in our place. He paid a penalty of sin that we should pay with his blood. He secured a full payment for a full forgiveness at the cross. He satisfied the wrath of God against us.

Having completed his work there, he declared his work finished. He breathed his last, died and was buried. But on the third day, Christ rose from the grave. Death could no longer hold Him. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so that we may walk in newness of life.

He ascended to heaven after 40 days to sit at the Father's right hand. Someday he'll return to judge all mankind.

Now this good news of Jesus calls for response. All must repent. Turn from sin, turn to Christ. Through him we have access by faith into grace to stand before the Father. We can have peace with God the Father through the One and only Lord, Jesus Christ.

We cannot earn or deserve eternal life. It's a gift can be justified by grace alone. Through faith alone and Christ alone. The grace, mercy and peace with God and from God are what we need most of all, is what this weary world needs. It's true of Paul and Titus back then and it's true of us today.

So our hope of eternal life is in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. We'll sing about that now. To this I hold. My hope is only Jesus, for my life is wholly bound to His. Oh, how strange and divine.

I can sing all is mine, yet not I, but do Christ in me. Let's pray and sing.

Lord, we thank youk that until the fullness of Gentiles comes in or until your appointed time, our job is to continue the ministry, the work of the gospel. Lord, we're thankful for your word. We're thankful for your son that you sent as the cornerstone to start this church. And we're in this dispensation that's about 2,000 years and the the work continues as we reach the nations. Lord, you established the early church gave apostles and prophets and through them we have the witness the testimony of your Son.

And through them we have their own teachings that's inspired and we continue in the work today as we listen in on this correspondence between Paul and Titus. Lord, may we listen with ears that ears to hear so that we too can be faithful in continuing the ministry. Or we do pray that you would help us to meditate on all that Paul has to say. Help us to feel the urgency. Help us to feel the importance that we have in this role.

Help us to promote discipleship and evangelism to all who are lost and all those who need to grow in Christ. Pray that you will help us as we continue through this passage in the next few weeks and months. Christ's name we pray. Amen.